Mosques

One of the most important and authoritative books to celebrate mosque architecture and Islamic design, featuring many newly commissioned photographs. Mosques reflect some of the greatest architectural achievements - their spiritual purpose gives them a profound and often mystical beauty. This visually striking volume illustrates the development of basic mosque strucutral and decorative elements with over sixty examples. Venerated mosques such as the Great Mosque of Córdoba, the Imam Mosque of Isfahan, and Instanbul's Süleymaniye Mosque, as well as Doha's innovative Abu al-Qabib Mosque, are featured in magnificent detail. Mosques: Splendors of Islam showcases mosques from Europe, the Indian subcontinent, North America, North Africa and the sub-Sahara, the Middle East, and Russia and the Caucasus. It spans from their earliest origins in Mecca and Medina to contemporary masterpieces, highlighting major stylistic transformations as illustrated in the mosques of some of Islam's great dynasties - the Umayyads, the Abbasids, the Mamluks, the Ottomans, the Safavids, and the Mughals. The inclusion of dynamic new structures provides an insight into the vitality of current mosque design. Original and archival photographs offer exterior and interior views as well as images of adjacent gardens and fountains that grace these sanctuaries. Essays by prominent architecture and design authorities also address such topics as the iconographic and decorative elements of the mosque. Descriptions of their calligraphy and tilework, as well as furnishings and illumination, enhance this volume. -- from dust jacket.